Running back 2 state

The orange and black are going back to Stevens Point.

Grafton High School’s Zander Lichosik took second place at the division 2 Mayville cross country sectional last Friday, leading the Black Hawks to the team title.

On the girls’ side, Julia Wille beat 110 other runners to win the sectional and lead the Hawks to second place and a trip to the state meet.

Lichosik ran the 5,000-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 1.27 seconds, eight seconds behind Portage’s Tyler Jones.

“Zander has been an amazing leader all year running at the top of most races and coming off a fourth-place finish at the North Shore Conference meet a week ago against some amazing individuals,” coach Kevin Kriegel said.

“He has been solid all year and a great motivator to those on the team and shows what can happen with dedication and off-season training.”

Nathan Baker was ninth in 17:59.53, and Cael Abad was right behind in 10th in 17:59.81.

Sam Peters was 21st in 18:24.06, and Hunter Bartelt was 25th in 18:25.55. Thomas Volkman, the team’s sixth runner which didn’t count toward the team score, was just behind in 26th in 18:26.1.

The Hawks finished with 67 points to win the 16-team sectional, with Winneconne taking second with 84.

“The boys team had a great team race and put it all together when it mattered the most, which is great to see for a number of seniors who are part of this team,” Kriegel said.

Wille ran a 20:25.17, more than four seconds ahead of Allison Butte of Winneconne

“Julia Wille has been much like Zander in leading the team throughout the season and being a great support for the other girls on the team. She has high expectations and goals, and those were realized with her first career win in cross country as an individual in the sectional race. It is a testament to her dedication and hard work as well,” Kriegel said.

Wille’s younger sister Maddy was fifth in 20:56.36. Natalie Cherella was ninth in a season-best 21:25.16. Elise Lueck was 13th in 21:34.32, and Morgan Ruona was 18th in 21:52.18.

“It has been great having both Wille sisters on the team this year and they have definitely pushed each other in a positive way that benefits this group,” Kriegel said.

“We knew going in we were one of the favorites for the girls’ teams and just needed to take care of business, which they did.”

It was the second consecutive season that both the boys and girls’ team qualified for the state meet.

“We had been working toward this goals all year after qualifying last year with both teams and talked a lot about making the most of opportunities and finishing strong at the end of the season,” Kriegel said.

Rocket girls take second behind rival

Karen Ibarra led the Cedar Grove-Belgium girls to a second-place team finish in the division 3 Manitowoc Lincoln sectional.

Ibarra took third in 20:52 in the cold and 25 mph wind, and the team scored 68 points to Oostburg’s 41. Kewaukee was a distant third in 112.

Lyndsay Sass was 12th in a personal-record 22:02. Grace Voskuil was 16th in 22:19. Cheyenne Simonet was 17th in 22:22, and Katie Mueller was 20th in 22:30.

“The girls got out to a great start and put themselves in good position. Karen ran well and was within range of the sectional champ the entire time,” coach Brandon Langer said.

“Our Nos. 2 through 5 runners really did a nice job in the later stages of the race in terms of moving up and picking people off.  Katie Mueller also ran a season best, which is what was needed in order to move on.”

The Rocket boys took fourth with 119 points. Brillion won with 71, and Kohler was second with 91.

Quinn Hoopman was 17th in 18:06. Ben Fleuchaus was 18th in 18:07. Nathanael Bruhn was 23rd in 18:28. Logan Ketterhagen was 28th in 18:44, and Andrew Reichert was 33rd in 18:55.

“As a coach, I am disappointed. Not in my boys, but in myself in terms of not being able help them achieve what they wanted to achieve,” Langer said.

But he said he looks forward to what the boys can do next season, especially if everyone returning runs 25 to 40 miles per week in summer.

Grisar leads Port Washington boys

The Port Washington’s boys took fourth place in the division 2 Shorewood sectional with 79 points. Wisconsin Lutheran won with 51 points, and Shorewood had 53.

Brett Grisar led the way by finishing third in 16:50 with temperatures in the 40s and winds up to 30 mph. Grisar got out with the two leaders and separated from the pack.

“I was confident that Grisar would be able to earn a qualifying position if he was able to run anywhere near the times that he had been running in the last month of competition,” coach Mark Pasten said.

Zach Gephart was ninth in 17:23. Ben Pasten was 10th in 17:26. Mason Raasch was 27th in 18:14, and Joe Burke was 30th in 18:50.

Gephart and Pasten join Grisar as individual qualifiers. Coach Pasten said Gephart was right behind Grisar halfway through the race and hung on four the fourth of five qualifying spots.

Ben Pasten “ran just about a perfect race,” his father and coach said. He and Gephart ran together at the end.

Stacey qualifies for Port girls

Port’s girls missed out on team qualifying by eight points. They finished with 74, behind Shorewood’s 40 and Martin Luther’s 66.

“Obviously, second would have been better but probably not realistic,” coach Joe Adamak said.

Bethany Stacey qualified for state by taking sixth in a PR 10:20.13.

Mira Stimac was 11th in a PR 10:21.1. Katie Erlandson was 13th in a PR 12:21.15. Jill Cavanaugh was 18th in 21:30, and Claire Woods knocked 30 to 40 seconds off of her best time and was 26th in 22:22, Adamak said.

“It’s one of those things where they’re happy with their performance but they don’t want their season to end. They put a lot of time and effort to get to where they were, the top four especially,” he said.

Large advances for Ozaukee girls

The Ozaukee girls just missed making state as a team, taking third with 73 points at the division 3 Lake Country Lutheran sectional.

Marshall won with 57, and defending state champ Dodgeland scored 63.

Sophomore Kelley Large took seventh in 20:47 and qualified for the state meet.

“Kelley ran a great race on a very honest course against tough competition. She had to outkick an opponent from Lake Country Lutheran the final 100 meters to qualify, and she did,” coach Andrew Pfeuffer said. “Kelley is an extremely hard worker, loves to run and earned every bit of qualifying for the state meet.”

Jenna Schueller was 15th in a PR 21:29. Ashlee Mueller was 20th in a PR 20:54. Amy Hoffmann was 22nd in a season-best 22:02, and Ally Clark was 24th in 22:18.

The boys took 12th with 303 points. Lake Country Lutheran won with 72. Kenosha St. Joseph’s scored 77.

Matt Baldwin was 21st in a PR 18:29. Hayden Rice was 23rd in 18:35. Tyler Mueller was 45th in at PR 19:14. Mason Thill was 106th in a season-best 22:37, and Brock Berend was 120th in 24:12.